Honkai: Star Rail – Ruan Mei build and ascension guide

Combine science and elegance with the best Honkai: Star Rail Ruan Mei build and lead your team to success against familiar and unknown foes thanks to the abilities of this genius. Ruan Mei, a member of the Genius Society, is a 5-Star character dealing Ice DMG and following The Harmony, which makes her a Support unit for your party.

Her Skill, String Sings Slow Swirls, applies Overtone on Ruan Mei for three turns. As long as she has Overtone, all allies deal more damage and have their Weakness Break Efficiency boosted.

Ruan Mei’s Ultimate, Petals to Stream, Repose in Dream, deploys a field lasting two turns. All allies in this field gain additional All-Type RES PEN and will apply the Thanatoplum Rebloom on targets they hit. Thanatoplum Rebloom triggers when an enemy recovers from Weakness Break, extending the duration of Weakness Break and delaying their next action by an amount of time depending on Ruan Mei’s Break Effect stat. It also deals Break DMG based on Ruan Mei’s Ice Break DMG. Thanatoplum Rebloom can’t be applied on an enemy again until after they’ve recovered from Weakness Break once.

Her Talent, Somatotypical Helix, increases the SPD of everyone on the team aside from Ruan Mei and deals additional Break DMG based on her Ice Break DMG to any enemy who has been inflicted with Weakness Break by an ally. Additionally, one of her Traces boosts all allies’ Break Effect.

Eidolon Levels, which are obtained through getting additional copies of Ruan Mei, have some improvements in store. Eidolon Level 1 allows allies in her Ultimate’s field to ignore 20% of the enemy’s DEF. Eidolon 2 provides a powerful passive, boosting all allies’ ATK when dealing damage to targets with Weakness Break by 40%. Eidolon 4 boosts Ruan Mei’s Break Effect by 40% for three turns whenever an enemy is inflicted with Weakness Break. Finally, Eidolon 6 extends her Ultimate’s duration for a turn and increases her Talent’s Break DMG modifier by 200%.

Honkai: Star Rail – Ruan Mei: best Light Cones

Ruan Mei’s premium Light Cone is, of course, her signature item: Past Self in Mirror. Providing a Break Effect boost, it also increases all allies’ damage for three turns after the wearer uses their Ultimate. If the wearer has 150% Break Effect or more, a Skill Point will be recovered after the Ultimate has been used. In addition, it regenerates ten Energy for all allies at the start of each combat wave.

This one checks all the boxes for Ruan Mei and pretty much no one else at this point, so at least there will be no fighting among your characters for access to this Light Cone. From the 4-Star line-up, Memories of the Past is a really solid option for her.

Best Light Cones for Ruan Mei in HSR:

• Past Self in Mirror (5-Star)
• The Battle Isn’t Over (5-Star)
• Memories of the Past (4-Star)
• Carve the Moon, Weave the Clouds (4-Star)
• Past and Future (4-Star)

Honkai: Star Rail – Ruan Mei: best Relics

Maximizing Ruan Mei’s contribution to the team requires her to have a high Break Effect stat. In addition, you’ll want her to have good SPD and bolster her defensive attributes to ensure that she can survive being targeted by enemies without going down in a single hit.

Best Relic Sets for Ruan Mei in HSR:

• Watchmaker, Master of Dream Machinations (4) – +16% Break Effect, +30% Break Effect for all allies for two turns when the wearer activates their Ultimate.
• Messenger Traversing Hackerspace (4) – +6% SPD, +12% SPD for all allies for one turn when the wearer uses their Ultimate.

Best Planar Ornaments for Ruan Mei in HSR:

• Talia: Kingdom of Banditry (2) – +16% Break Effect, +20% Break Effect in addition when the wearer’s SPD is 145 or higher.
• Broken Keel (2) – +10% Effect RES, +10% CRIT DMG for all allies when the wearer’s Effect RES is 30% or higher.

Best stats for Ruan Mei in HSR:

• Head – HP (Primary), Break Effect, SPD, HP %, Effect RES
• Hands – ATK (Primary), Break Effect, SPD, HP %, Effect RES
• Body – HP % (Primary), Break Effect, SPD, Effect RES, DEF %
• Feet – SPD (Primary), Break Effect, HP %, Effect RES, DEF %
• Planar Sphere – HP % (Primary), Break Effect, SPD, Effect RES, DEF %
• Link Rope – Energy Regeneration (Primary), Break Effect, SPD, HP %, Effect RES

Honkai: Star Rail – Ruan Mei: best teams

Ruan Mei is fantastic on basically any team, making her an almost omnipresent character. Her kit is universally strong and got elevated even more with the introduction of the Break Meta.

• Kafka (Main DPS), Black Swan (Sub DPS), Ruan Mei (Support), Huohuo (Support)

Lots of Weakness Break means lots of opportunities to inflict DoT effects, making Ruan Mei the perfect addition to a composition focusing on that. You can replace Black Swan with Guinaifen, Sampo or Luka for this team build.

• Firefly (Main DPS), Trailblazer (Harmony) (Support), Ruan Mei (Support), Gallagher (Support)

This iconic team is the face of the Break Meta and remains a devastating force. Firefly can apply Fire Weakness on enemies to break them regardless of their initial Weakness Type, her powers being boosted by Trailblazer and Ruan Mei, who can also enable Super Break DMG and keep foes Weakness Broken for longer. Gallagher is the team’s aggressive healer and deals a whole lot of damage himself, thanks to his own Break Effect specialization. Lingsha is an excellent alternative for him, while Fugue can stand in for Trailblazer.

Honkai: Star Rail – Ruan Mei: ascension materials

Here’s everything you need to know to get Ruan Mei ascended to the maximum level and upgrade all of her talents.

Ruan Mei requires the following ascension materials to get to level 80 in addition to the necessary XP:

• Credits x308,000
• Immortal Scionette x15
• Immortal Aeroblossom x15
• Immortal Lumintwig x15
• Gelid Chitin x65

You can collect Immortal Scionette, Aeroblossom, and Lumintwig from enemies on the Xianzhou Luofu as well as the Simulated Universe. You can create or exchange them through the Omni-Synthesizer on the Astral Express, too. Immortal Scionettes are one of the materials you can easily farm through the Daily Assignments to your characters, making for a steady income of the material. Gelid Chitin is dropped by the Stagnant Shadow (Cloudford). The best source of Credits are the Golden Calyxes found around the universe.

Ruan Mei requires the following materials to upgrade her combat abilities and Traces:

• Credits x3,000,000
• Immortal Scionette x41
• Immortal Aeroblossom x56
• Immortal Lumintwig x58
• Harmonic Tune x18
• Ancestral Hymn x69
• Stellaris Symphony x139
• Past Evils of the Borehole Planet Disaster x12
• Tracks of Destiny x8

For the materials already mentioned, check above. Harmonic Tune, Ancestral Hymn, and Stellaris Symphony can be farmed in the Crimson Calyx (Robot Settlement) in Belobog’s Underworld. As usual, you can create the high-level materials by using up lower-level materials in the Omni-Synthesizer on the Astral Express.

Past Evils of the Borehole Planet Disaster is boss material only gained from the Echo of War (Seclusion Zone) domain on Herta Space Station, while Tracks of Destiny can be obtained during time-limited events, the Embers Exchange, the Nameless Honor, or as a Simulated Universe Points Reward.